114 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



ciliate, glandular, 3-nerved. Petals oboval, quite round at the top, 

 veined darker, 3-4 times longer than the sepals. Capsule ovoid. 



Dry pastures and limestone hills in the south. June, July. 



Distribution. — Liguria, e.g. on Monte Toraggio, South-central 

 France, Northern Spain. 



Linum catkarticum L. Cathartic Flax. 



This small, but well-known annual, with small white flowers 

 and oblong, opposite leaves, is often found in the Alps and sub- Alps. 



Distribution. — Europe, Western Asia, Canary Isles. 



TAMARICACE.E 



A very small European, North African, and Central Asiatic family, 

 with one Mexican genus. Mostly shrubs, with alternate leaves, 

 and ovules and seeds inserted on 3 distinct placentas, arising from 

 the base of the cavity of the ovary. Seeds plumose. 



Myricaria germanica Desv. (Plate XIII.) (Tamarix germanica L.) 



A cypress-like shrub, i-ij yard high, with slender branches in 

 bundles. Leaves very small, close together, in the form of needle- 

 shaped scales. Flowers pale pink, in a long terminal spike. Sepals 

 and petals 5, rarely 4, free, surrounding the ripe fruit. Stamens 10, 

 welded into a tube at the base. Capsule many seeded. Seeds 

 with a shortly stalked plume. 



River beds and sandy sides of torrents ; local. June, July. 



In the Alps it ascends to about 5000 feet, generally in the ddbris 

 of glacier streams, as in the Val Ferret above Pras de Fort, the 

 Trient Valley below Trient village, and the bed of the Arve about 

 Argenti^re. 



Distribution. — Alps, Pyrenees, CorbiSres, Alsace, East and South 

 of France, Switzerland, Europe, Western Asia. 



Very probably it has the faculty of preventing the sand and 

 gravel of rivers being washed away, Hke Hippophae Rhamnoides, 

 with which it sometimes grows. 



GERANIACE^ 



Annual or perennial herbs, or rarely low shrubs, with opposite 

 or rarely alternate leaves, usually stipulate, divided, and compoimd. 

 Flowers regular in the chief European genera. Sepals 5. Petals 

 usually 5, twisted in the bud. Stamens 5 or 10, often imited at the 

 base. Ovary 3-5 celled, with i or more seed in each, all attached to 

 the central axis. Styles 5. About 750 species. 



Geranium L. 

 Herbs with forked stems, often swollen at the nodes, opposite, 

 palmately divided leaves and purplish or pink flowers, solitary or 



